MIDNIGHT AT TIMES SQUARE: featuring Comedian Dan Nainan of New York from 8:30 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. Volunteer Abbotsford will host guests 19 years of age and over inside the Ag Rec Centre which will be magically transformed into downtown New York to celebrate, complete with Broadway, Central Park and Times Square. Partygoers will have the opportunity to enjoy tasty snacks offered by city-style street vendors, take part in draws for fantastic prizes (including a $2000 travel voucher and a WestJet voucher for two) and dance their way into 2010.

Guests are encouraged to ‘dress to impress’.

Net proceeds from ticket, drink and food sales as well as 50/50 draws and “Torch Surprise Number” raffle will benefit the Paediatric Department of the Abbotsford Regional Hospital and Volunteer Abbotsford.

The Fraser Valley Health Care Foundation is pleased to be a co-beneficiary of this fabulous New Years’ Eve event. The Fraser Valley Health Care Foundation, which received its charitable status in April 2000, builds partnerships with individuals, community organizations and businesses to support our local hospitals and health care services.

Volunteer Abbotsford, a legacy of Abbotsford Spirit of BC (ASBC), was formed May 3, 2008 to provide volunteer services to individuals, agencies and businesses. They assist in building the capacity for effective volunteering through personalized training, leadership, and acting as advocates on issues relating to volunteerism.

About Dan Nainan…

Comedian Dan Nainan of New York will be the Master of Ceremonies and do a comedy performance at the Midnight at Times Square New Year’s Eve event at the AgRec Building.

As a senior engineer at Intel in the late 90’s, Dan Nainan presented high tech demos worldwide with Chairman Andy Grove. His job involved making presentations in front of thousands of people, so he took a comedy class to get over the nervousness of being on stage. Intel’s event planners saw his tape and asked him to perform at the annual sales conference for 2500 people, in what was only his third performance ever. His dead-on impressions of Andy Grove and Bill Clinton had the audience rolling in the aisles. Dan was promoted to Strategic Relations Manager, but restless in his stationary new job, he retired from Intel in 2001 to pursue comedy full time.

Dan won an open mike contest at the DC Improv and the chance to open for the headliner of his choice.

Currently Nainan performs at charity and corporate functions, weddings, private parties, colleges and many comedy clubs in the U.S. He recently opened the Bethesda Comedy Club, a 300 seat venue in the Washington, D.C. area.

A rare copy of Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There that Lewis Carroll presented to the book’s real-life inspiration has fetched $115,000 US at auction.

Published in 1871, the first-edition volume was inscribed to Alice Pleasance Liddell by Charles Dodgson, who wrote under the pen name Lewis Carroll.

Its sale was the highlight of Wednesday’s children’s literature auction by Southern-California based Profiles in History.

The volume — a sequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland — was sold by retired National Football League player and children’s literature collector Pat McInally, who called it “really exciting” to have found a book the author had given to the real Alice.

Liddell was the daughter of the dean at Christ Church, Oxford, where Dodgson worked as a professor.

McInally, the former Cincinnati Bengals star, said the goal of the auction — which featured a host of items from his collection — was so he could focus his efforts on books by A.A. Milne.

Another highlight of Wednesday’s sale included Beatrix Potter’s own copy of her book The Tale of Peter Rabbit, which sold for $92,000 US.

The auction also featured first-edition copies of several classics, including H.G. Wells’s The Time Machine: An Invention, J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring, Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows, and J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philsopher’s Stone.

So everyone knows there is NOTHING to do in Abbotsford New Years eve, right? Sorry, that’s wrong this year and from now on. This party is going to be hugh! I’ve heard there are already hundreds of tickets sold.

If you know me you know I’m not much for partying, but I’ll be at this one. First, because I do think it sounds like fun, second and more importantly, it is going to help Sick Kids at the Abbotsford Hospital and Volunteer Abbotsford.

Volunteer Abbotsford is an amazing organization that is just getting started, but is going to help so many organizations in so many ways. A central hub of information and administration for volunteers. And, volunteers are so important these days.

So, please call Volunteer Abbotsford to buy your tickets before they run out. Do it now before you forget. Call 604 850 7161 or click through the link below (or above) to the Volunteer Abbotsford website.

Firefox and Safari partially support it, Google’s Wave and Chrome projects are banking on it, and most web developers are ecstatic about what it means. It’s HTML5, and if you’re not exactly sure what it is, here’s an explainer.

What is HTML5? Some kind of really fancy link tag?

HTML5 is a specification for how the web’s core language, HTML, should be formatted and utilized to deliver text, images, multimedia, web apps, search forms, and anything else you see in your browser. In some ways, it’s mostly a core set of standards that only web developers really need to know. In other ways, it’s a major revision to how the web is put together. Not every web site will use it, but those that do will have better support across modern desktop and mobile browsers (that is, everything except Internet Explorer).

What Awesomeness can I expect from HTML5?

The big, marquee changes in HTML5 have already made some headlines, thanks to browser makers like Google, Apple, Mozilla, and others picking them up and implementing them. The shortlist:

Offline storage: Kind of like “Super Cookies,” but with much more space to store both one-time data and persistent app databases, like email. Actually, you can think of offline storage as something a lot like Google Gears—you just won’t need to install a plug-in to reap the benefits.

Canvas drawing: Sites can mark off a space on a page where interactive pictures, charts and graphs, game components, and whatever else imagination allows can be drawn directly by programming code and user interaction—no Flash or other plug-ins required.

Native video and audio streaming support: It’s in the very early stages and subject to format disruption, but sites like YouTube and Pandora could one day skip Flash entirely to bring you streaming audio and video, with timed playback and other neat features.

Geolocation: Just what it sounds like, but not limited to a single provider’s API or browser tool. HTML5 can find your location and use it to tailor things like search results, tag your Twitter updates, and more. Location-aware devices are a big deal.

Smarter forms: Search boxes, text inputs, and other you-type-here fields get better controls for focusing, validating data, interacting with other page elements, sending through email, and more. It may not sound that sexy, but it could mean less annoyance as a user, and that’s always a good thing.

Web application focus: Without breaking down the hundreds of nuts and bolts, it’s fair to say that HTML5 is aimed at making it easier to build wikis, drag-and-drop tools, discussion boards, real-time chat, search front-ends, and other modern web elements into any site, and have them work the same across browsers.

Where can I see HTML5 in action?

Ooh, good question!

From this page right here, with a soon-to-be-optional-maybe-Flash, you can check out these video demonstrations:

YouTube in HTML5: No Flash required at all (for Chrome and Safari only, at this point).

Canvas drawing and audio Neat interactive site that shows tweets from folks who are digging on HTML5, with streaming background audio and interactive data pieces.

Why is it being pushed? Don’t Flash and JavaScript already work?

Make no mistake, HTML5 has much love for JavaScript and its many relatives—in fact, the new markup standards make it easier for JavaScript-type code to point at, and pull from, pieces of each web page. As for Flash, and Silverlight, and other browser plug-ins, well, they are artificial solutions for a natural problem that HTML5 is trying to fix: Placing and managing interactive elements on a web page.

Besides being a major source of browser memory leaks and crashes, Flash and its brethren also doesn’t work on every platform, and has to be re-written and adapted for every new one. If you’re looking to make a clever application available to as many people as possible, a write once, use everywhere system is ideal. When more browsers and developers support HTML5’s audio, video, and interaction standards, the idea of the web as the universal app store—for smartphones, for desktops and laptops, Windows, Mac, and Linux—gets closer to reality.

Apple tried to pitch this mentality to developers with their first iPhone release. That pronouncement was, to put it mildly, roundly mocked. Since then, webapps have become a lot more powerful and respectable as mainstays of productivity, and enthusiasm for the walled garden model of application markets has waned quite a bit in the minds of an increasing number of developers.

That’s not to say that HTML5-powered web applications, with their lack of serious local storage, hardware access, and serious offline capabilities, are going to make the iPhone App Store, the Android Market, or the desktop software we’re all used to obsolete. But look at how Chrome is positioning its Chrome OS for netbooks, which relies on HTML5 for offline storage: A secondary computer, in terms of hard-and-fast capabilities, but one you might use just as often, if not more, for the web-connected convenience.

How will HTML5 makes its way onto my web?

HTML5 isn’t a software release, or a web development law. It’s a voted-upon and group-edited standard, written in broad fashion to accommodate different styles of development and the different thinking among web browser makers.

Put more simply, it depends on what you’re using to surf. And what standards your web makers are following.

Firefox, Safari, and Chrome on the desktop support a few of the styles and features outlined in HTML5’s draft specifications, like offline storage, canvas drawing, and, most intriguingly, tags for audio and video that allow sites to stream multimedia files directly into a browser. Apple’s Safari for iPhone and the Android browser also support elements of HTML5, as does Opera Mobile. Want to know the nitty-gritty of where your browser stands on HTML5? Web geeks have put in the time to put it all in a Wikipedia chart.

Those audio and video tags aren’t quite as liberating as they may seem. The writers of the HTML5 standard—Ian Hickson of Google and Davd Hyatt of Apple—wanted to define a single, standardized format for video streaming, but while their employers favor the H.264/MPEG-4 standard, open-source firms like Mozilla can’t abide by its patent “encumbrance,” and Opera and other web firms don’t particularly love the licensing costs. Their alternative is Theora, better known (relatively) as Ogg Theora. As it stands, HTML5 simply doesn’t require or suggest a single container format or codec to use, which could mean browser-by-browser differences down the road. Ars Technica has a good explainer on the HTML5 video codec debate.

Firefox and Safari partially support it, Google’s Wave and Chrome projects are banking on it, and most web developers are ecstatic about what it means. It’s HTML5, and if you’re not exactly sure what it is, here’s an explainer.

What is HTML5? Some kind of really fancy link tag?

HTML5 is a specification for how the web’s core language, HTML, should be formatted and utilized to deliver text, images, multimedia, web apps, search forms, and anything else you see in your browser. In some ways, it’s mostly a core set of standards that only web developers really need to know. In other ways, it’s a major revision to how the web is put together. Not every web site will use it, but those that do will have better support across modern desktop and mobile browsers (that is, everything except Internet Explorer).

What Awesomeness can I expect from HTML5?

The big, marquee changes in HTML5 have already made some headlines, thanks to browser makers like Google, Apple, Mozilla, and others picking them up and implementing them. The shortlist:

Offline storage: Kind of like “Super Cookies,” but with much more space to store both one-time data and persistent app databases, like email. Actually, you can think of offline storage as something a lot like Google Gears—you just won’t need to install a plug-in to reap the benefits.

Canvas drawing: Sites can mark off a space on a page where interactive pictures, charts and graphs, game components, and whatever else imagination allows can be drawn directly by programming code and user interaction—no Flash or other plug-ins required.

Native video and audio streaming support: It’s in the very early stages and subject to format disruption, but sites like YouTube and Pandora could one day skip Flash entirely to bring you streaming audio and video, with timed playback and other neat features.

Geolocation: Just what it sounds like, but not limited to a single provider’s API or browser tool. HTML5 can find your location and use it to tailor things like search results, tag your Twitter updates, and more. Location-aware devices are a big deal.

Smarter forms: Search boxes, text inputs, and other you-type-here fields get better controls for focusing, validating data, interacting with other page elements, sending through email, and more. It may not sound that sexy, but it could mean less annoyance as a user, and that’s always a good thing.

Web application focus: Without breaking down the hundreds of nuts and bolts, it’s fair to say that HTML5 is aimed at making it easier to build wikis, drag-and-drop tools, discussion boards, real-time chat, search front-ends, and other modern web elements into any site, and have them work the same across browsers.

Where can I see HTML5 in action?

Ooh, good question!

From this page right here, with a soon-to-be-optional-maybe-Flash, you can check out these video demonstrations:

YouTube in HTML5: No Flash required at all (for Chrome and Safari only, at this point).

Canvas drawing and audio Neat interactive site that shows tweets from folks who are digging on HTML5, with streaming background audio and interactive data pieces.

Why is it being pushed? Don’t Flash and JavaScript already work?

Make no mistake, HTML5 has much love for JavaScript and its many relatives—in fact, the new markup standards make it easier for JavaScript-type code to point at, and pull from, pieces of each web page. As for Flash, and Silverlight, and other browser plug-ins, well, they are artificial solutions for a natural problem that HTML5 is trying to fix: Placing and managing interactive elements on a web page.

Besides being a major source of browser memory leaks and crashes, Flash and its brethren also doesn’t work on every platform, and has to be re-written and adapted for every new one. If you’re looking to make a clever application available to as many people as possible, a write once, use everywhere system is ideal. When more browsers and developers support HTML5’s audio, video, and interaction standards, the idea of the web as the universal app store—for smartphones, for desktops and laptops, Windows, Mac, and Linux—gets closer to reality.

Apple tried to pitch this mentality to developers with their first iPhone release. That pronouncement was, to put it mildly, roundly mocked. Since then, webapps have become a lot more powerful and respectable as mainstays of productivity, and enthusiasm for the walled garden model of application markets has waned quite a bit in the minds of an increasing number of developers.

That’s not to say that HTML5-powered web applications, with their lack of serious local storage, hardware access, and serious offline capabilities, are going to make the iPhone App Store, the Android Market, or the desktop software we’re all used to obsolete. But look at how Chrome is positioning its Chrome OS for netbooks, which relies on HTML5 for offline storage: A secondary computer, in terms of hard-and-fast capabilities, but one you might use just as often, if not more, for the web-connected convenience.

How will HTML5 makes its way onto my web?

HTML5 isn’t a software release, or a web development law. It’s a voted-upon and group-edited standard, written in broad fashion to accommodate different styles of development and the different thinking among web browser makers.

Put more simply, it depends on what you’re using to surf. And what standards your web makers are following.

Firefox, Safari, and Chrome on the desktop support a few of the styles and features outlined in HTML5’s draft specifications, like offline storage, canvas drawing, and, most intriguingly, tags for audio and video that allow sites to stream multimedia files directly into a browser. Apple’s Safari for iPhone and the Android browser also support elements of HTML5, as does Opera Mobile. Want to know the nitty-gritty of where your browser stands on HTML5? Web geeks have put in the time to put it all in a Wikipedia chart.

Those audio and video tags aren’t quite as liberating as they may seem. The writers of the HTML5 standard—Ian Hickson of Google and Davd Hyatt of Apple—wanted to define a single, standardized format for video streaming, but while their employers favor the H.264/MPEG-4 standard, open-source firms like Mozilla can’t abide by its patent “encumbrance,” and Opera and other web firms don’t particularly love the licensing costs. Their alternative is Theora, better known (relatively) as Ogg Theora. As it stands, HTML5 simply doesn’t require or suggest a single container format or codec to use, which could mean browser-by-browser differences down the road. Ars Technica has a good explainer on the HTML5 video codec debate.

Dr. Vinay Goyal is an MBBS, DRM, DNB (Intensivist and thyroid specialist), having clinical experience of over 20 years. He has worked in institutions like Hinduja Hospital, Bombay Hospital, Saifee Hospital, Tata Memorial, to name a few.

Presently, he is heading our Nuclear Medicine Department and Thyroid clinic at Riddhivinayak Cardiac and Critical Centre, Malad (W). The following message given by him makes a lot of sense and is important for all of us to know.

“The only portals of entry are the nostrils and mouth/throat. In a global epidemic of this nature, it’s almost impossible not coming into contact with H1N1 in spite of all precautions. Contact with H1N1 is not so much of a problem as proliferation is.”

While you are still healthy and not showing any symptoms of H1N1 infection, in order to prevent proliferation, aggravation of symptoms and development of secondary infections, some very simple steps, not fully highlighted in most official communications, can be practiced (instead of focusing on how to stock N95 or Tamiflu):

Frequent hand-washing (well highlighted in all official communications).

Hands-off-the-face” approach. Resist all temptations to touch any part of face (unless you want to eat, bathe or sleep).

*Gargle twice a day with warm salt water (use Listerine if you don’t trust salt). *H1N1 takes 2-3 days after initial infection in the throat/ nasal cavity to proliferate and show characteristic symptoms. Simple gargling prevents proliferation. In a way, gargling with salt water has the same effect on a healthy individual that Tamiflu has on an infected one. Don’t underestimate this simple, inexpensive and powerful preventative method.

Similar to 3 above, *clean your nostrils at least once every day with warm salt water. *Not everybody may be good at Jala Neti or Sutra Neti (very good Yoga asanas to clean nasal cavities), but *blowing the nose hard once a day and swabbing both nostrils with cotton buds dipped in warm salt water is very effective in bringing down viral population.

*Boost your natural immunity with foods that are rich in Vitamin C (Amla and other citrus fruits). — If you have to supplement with Vitamin C tablets, make sure that it also has Zinc to boost absorption.

* Drink as much of warm liquids as you can.

*Drinking warm liquids has the same effect as gargling, but in the reverse direction. They wash off proliferating viruses from the throat into the stomach where they cannot survive, proliferate or do any harm.